Six former employees of Valley View Skilled Nursing facility in Ukiah, CA now face criminal charges for their role in nursing home abuse. As part of an apparent prank on other workers on the next shift, the former employees coated dementia patients with slippery ointment. The patients were unable to resist given their condition.

The onetime employees involved in the prank were all fired from the nursing home and have now been arrested and charged with misdemeanor elder abuse.

“This is despicable behavior by people placed in a position of trust,” Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a written statement.

The accused ex-employees were arrested after an investigation by the attorney general’s elder abuse bureau, and each were charged with one misdemeanor count of causing injury to an elder or dependent adult, battery committed on an elder or a dependent adult, conspiracy and battery committed while on hospital property.

“Mendocino County is home to a growing elder population,” said District Attorney Meredith J. Lintott. “We’re committed to keeping that population safe and to prosecuting those who take advantage of our elders.”

Dan Niccum from the nursing home’s parent company, Horizon West Healthcare, said four of the employees applied the ointment and two did not report the abuse. Niccum said the result was the employees being fired and the abuse being reported to the state.